Soft cinnamon sugar cupcakes with a hidden surprise! A luscious croissant baked right in the cupcake and topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. These Snickerdoodle Crupcakes are easily my new favorite mash-up dessert!

I’m so excited about these. Yes, I often get excited about baked goods, but these are awesome! Think of a soft snickerdoodle cookie combined with a buttery croissant, then smothered in cinnamon cream cheese frosting like a cinnmon roll. Best breakfast ever, right?

I’ve always loved the idea of hybrid desserts or dessert mash-ups. There’s of course the coveted cronut, the cruffin (burglars even broke in and stole the recipe!), and also the Brookie. I even morphed sweet potato pie into baklava. It was a memorable experience. Just a quick shout out…one of my favorite bloggers wrote all about mash-ups.

Everyone knows not to grocery shop when you’re hungry. We all do it anyway and end up with a cart load of food we probably will never get around to eating. You also shouldn’t grocery shop with a two year old, regardless if she’s hungry or not. Every time I’m in the produce section, she’s super excited to see those bright yellow bananas. “Bananas!”, she always squeals when she rides by them. Will she eat those bananas? Nope. Does she scream if you don’t put them in the cart? Yes. It’s okay though, that means plenty of opportunities for baking this Chocolate Chunk Banana Caramel Poke Cake. You would be squealing about bananas too.

Three glorious layers come together for the ultimate cannoli experience. These super easy Chocolate Cannoli Bars are still decadent and plus they look super fancy. This is where you can go crazy with the pistachios. Pistachios = Fancy.

So I think I finally got the kiddos on a schedule. Oliver goes to summer camp every morning from 8 to about 1:30. Super amen to that! Then it’s just Jovi and me for what we call “mommy camp”, which is just Jovi watching people play with Play Doh on Youtube. Is that a thing? There are like hundreds of videos of people making cupcakes with Play Doh, and her little two year old brain is hooked. Then around 11 am I smell something funky, change that diaper and she’s down for a nap. Probably dreaming about Play Doh, I’m sure. So for about an hour and a half it really turns into mommy camp. I catch up on the blog, bake, and just soak in the sounds of nothing. I love it.

Thick dark chocolate cakes sandwiched with the creamiest, made from scratch mint frosting ever. And don’t forget the huge helping of Andes Mints! These Andes Mint Whoopie Pies will help you cool off during the heat wave.

I think my sweat glands hit a milestone today. No lie, I changed my clothes like three times today, like a sweaty man. I basically was sweating like a man with hyperhidrosis. It broke 50 C today, and in American speak, that’s pretty much 120 F. My little Chevy rental said so and I’m sticking with it. Summer is so strange here in Dubai. The sunshine is so bright and beautiful, but the wind is so intense that there is always this dusty haze around. It’s so dusty it looks like smog. We haven’t had a major sandstorm yet, but from what I hear it’s a little scary. Like Tom Cruise Mission Impossible scary. On a lighter note, we told my son we were living in Tatooine. He pretty much feels like a boss. He can now tell his little friends that in his past life he had an address in Star Wars.

My favorite chocolate chip cookie kicked up a notch with a messy drizzle of gooey caramel and a generous helping of crushed Maltesers Candies. You’re welcome.

You know what’s super terrifying in Dubai? Not the camels that have been known to bite fingers off, or spread MERS among happy and oblivious tourists. It’s not even the 12 types of venomous snakes found here. It’s the insanely dangerous drivers.

Here’s a scary fact: Everyday an average of 2 people are killed on the roads here. Everyday!

When I first started driving here I literally had to pack extra pants from all the “Omigod, he’s coming into my lane and I have no where to swerve!” moments. Don’t get me started on their roundabouts. Please for the love of God, send some Dutch people over here to teach everyone how a roundabout works!

Dubai has schooled me on what a real summer feels like. Scorching sun all day, everyday, with highs of 120 and lows of 100. Lows of 100?!! On a positive note, I will say that bright sunshine everyday makes for great lighting while taking photos of food. You food bloggers would love it here!

Some facts about Dubai summers:

If taking a shower in the middle of a summer day, turn the water all the way to cold and it will be too hot to use. The water has been boiling in your outside pipes all day, while the hot water tanks are inside being cooled by the air conditioning.

You will definitely incur third degree burns on the bottoms of your feet if you decide to step outside on the pavement without foot wear. Even for a couple of seconds to run the trash out.

Have you ever had that moment when you can’t decide between a brownie with a crunchy edge or a soft chewy center? Well, now Ladies and Gents, you can have both. These brownies are so insanely fudgey it’s completely ridiculous, and the combination of those crunchy little Daim pieces take them over the edge. I have to warn you, Daim candy is a little difficult to find in the U.S. I’m in the United Arab Emirates so I can find it on every corner. If you aren’t in the UAE or Europe, you can find it in IKEA or most likely World Market. Otherwise, you can used some chocolate covered toffee that’s been crushed. You want the variation of big and small pieces to really make these brownies cruch.

Hello everyone! From the magical land of Dubai! To say these past couple of months have been a crazy ride is a complete understatement. Moving two small children across the world is pretty insane. Most people would probably not recommend uprooting your whole family and move to the Middle East. I say if you’re young and the opportunity to immerse your kids in an amazing multi-cultural city full of adventure, DO IT!!!

Dark chocolate cupcakes topped with minty green cookies and cream frosting, then drizzled with melted chocolate and crushed oreos. These Mint Cookies and Cream Oreo Cupcakes are a mouthful, but so worth it!

I know just six days ago I posted a recipe for Hummingbird Coffee Cake, and I was totally going to wait to post these cupcakes. You know, to let you guys breathe a little. Well, get ready. I’m going to smother you some more with my latest Hummingbird cake obsession. You can thank Southern Living circa 1978.

This post is taking much longer to write than expected. I probably should have been done an hour ago, but I’m watching a guilty pleasure on Bravo. My usual go to trash tv program is Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I’m caught up on that, so I’m on to Vanderpump Rules right now. It’s a train wreck! I. Can’t. Stop. Watching.